


Absence

by strawberriesandtophats



Series: Disaster Management has always been their forte [9]
Category: Endeavour (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, Introspection, M/M, Memories, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 23:11:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10056128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberriesandtophats/pseuds/strawberriesandtophats
Summary: The problem was that he’d gotten too used to Jakes’s presence in his life. Morse had thought that they would have more time together. He’d been wrong, of course.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this edit by rathvelus:
> 
> http://rathvelus.tumblr.com/post/157914447905

The problem was that he’d gotten too used to Jakes’s presence in his life. Morse had thought that they would have more time together. He’d been wrong, of course.

It’s not that he dreamed of Jakes coming back, appearing at his side when he went on investigations and walked down endless university hallways. It was just that he turned around sometimes, expecting to see a smirk and the gleam of good hair products. Life was easier, just a bit, with Jakes around. It wasn’t like the man strode through his dreams, all fancy suits and all sorts of competence.

Jakes was the sort of person who would remember to do the paperwork and ask all the right questions when interrogating possible subjects. Morse had never had to do all that one his own before, and the lack of support was just something he’d have to get used to. But some nights at the station he’d swear that he could smell Jakes’s cologne in the hallway or hear him tapping a pencil on the edge of the desk.

Morse dealt with it by sending letters and buying himself red socks when he managed to solve a case that Jakes would have enjoyed investigating. But there were moments when he’d just allow the radio in the station to play a song Jakes had favored. 

Morse forced himself to sit down in the chair beside Thursday, the one Jakes had always used. He tried to remember to answer when someone referred to him by his new rank, instead of looking around the room for Jakes in the half-hope that Jakes would somehow inexplicably appear in the doorway in a moment with a smoking cigarette and a grin that promised an interesting evening, if not an interesting week. It had been a fling. But it had been a good one, leaning against one another in the darkness of the station, against Thursday’s car on a smoke-break after an investigation, against bedroom walls in their bedsits. Memories lingered, especially in places where they’d been made. There was nothing wrong with holding onto them for a while, when the future was unclear and the night was cold. They would fade eventually, into warmth when he’d smell that particular brand of cigarettes or saw a tall, angular figure against the skyline. But for now he’d remember how things used to be.


End file.
